Conference Newsletter
ASPO-USA Houston Conference, Oct 17-20
Houston Hilton Americas

(V-1, September 10, 2007)

REMINDERS:

* Registration Rates Scheduled to Increase after September 20, 2007.
* Hotel Room Block is Nearing Capacity. Please register early to ensure your room availability at the conference rate. Hotel information is here.

1) News from IFP to be shared at the conference. Back in June of this year, at the Institute Francais du Petrole (French petroleum institute), conference speakers Aage Figenschou and Matt Simmons plus economist Herman Franssen heard a presentation that covered anticipated future world oil production. They were somewhat surprised by the material presented. Back in 2003, when the IFP hosted ASPO-2 in Paris on their campus, IFP's director shared the group's perspective that world oil production would peak in roughly 2020. By last year, IFP's official position had evolved; they anticipated that the peak would occur in 2015 and at roughly 100 million barrels per day. During the presentation this past June, the suggested peak oil date was to be sooner and at a lower level, followed by a long plateau. Details of that presentation will be clarified and then presented by Aage at the Houston conference on Wednesday evening, October 17, during the evening session, "Peak Oil: The View From Europe." Attendees will also hear from author/film maker David Strahan.

2) Thursday Evening: Digging into the Rationales Behind Different Views on Peak Oil. The panel will dig into the corners of the peak oil story in a respectful setting. Panelists will include Jeremy Gilbert (BP chief petroleum engineer, retired), Mariano Gurfinkel (U. of Texas, Dept. of Economic Geology), Roger Bezdek (economist, CEO of MISI), Richard Nehring (industry data and analysis, Nehring Associates), Randy Udall (director CORE and an ASPO-USA co-founder), and Mark Gaffigan (energy issues acting director, GAO). The panel will be moderated by Robert L. Hirsch (senior energy analyst, SAIC), lead author of "The Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation & Risk Management" (2005, National Energy Technology Laboratory). Bob intends to probe the panelists for areas of agreement, clear up a few points of possible misunderstanding, and explore rationales behind the areas of obvious disagreement. We're shooting for an informed dialogue here, not a slug-fest.

3) Special reception with T. Boone Pickens. After the Friday sessions have concluded, ASPO-USA will hold a special fund-raiser from 5:30-7:00 p.m. with T. Boone Pickens as the special guest. Tickets will cost $200 and should be reserved no later than Thursday morning, the day prior to the event. Tickets can be purchased online via the conference registration or on site.

4) Friday Evening: The Missing Link - Impacts of Fossil Fuel Peaking on Global Climate Change. David Rutledge (MIT) has made a number of presentations on the linkage between peak oil and climate change, and Pushker Kharecha (NASAGoddardSpaceCenter) is co-authoring a paper with well-known climate researcher James Hansen on the same subject. Both will deliver their talks in a session to be moderated by ASPO-USA's Randy Udall.

5) Pre-conference events. Please note that the two field trips: to the famous Houston Ship Channel, and to a functioning drilling rig, will depart from the Hilton Hotel driveway on Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. and return at 1 p.m. There is a fee and participants must have pre-registered for the events. The afternoon sessions in the Hilton spaces are free to conference registrants and run from 1:30-3:00 and 3:30-5:00 p.m.

6) US Congressman Roscoe Barlett (R-MD) on hold. The Congressman wants to attend the conference, as he did as a lunch time speaker in Denver (ASPO-USA 2005). However, if votes are being cast on that date, he won't be able to join us; at this time, his staff believes it likely that October 19th will be a voting day. If that happens, we hope that John Darnell, the Congressman's staffer on energy issues, we be able to join us as an able replacement.

7) Peak Oil Review Commentaries will give a sneak preview. If you don't yet subscribe to ASPO-USA's free weekly newsletter, we encourage you to do so. Most of the upcoming Commentaries (an Op-Ed) will be written by conference presenters, among them Bob Hirsch (a new study), Jeffrey Brown (the export-import story) and Richard Nehring (a different view on world production figures and forecasts).

We look forward to seeing you in Houston.

For ASPO-USA -
Co-founders: Steve Andrews, Randy Udall, Jim Baldauf, and Dick Lawrence
2007 Houston World Oil Conference
October 17-20, 2007
Hilton Americas, Houston, Texas
http://www.aspousa.org/aspousa3/
Registration: http://www.regonline.com/Checkin.asp?EventId=136392

ASPO-USA is A Non-profit, Non-partisan Research and Public Education Initiative to Address America's Peak Oil & Energy Challenges